RIFLE RANGE BOY

Chhava (Lion Cub, Hindi; 2025) Director: Laxman Utekar The debate centres on whether Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was simply a minor chieftain seizing small territories in the Deccan, an opportunist, or a Hindu nationalist. Additionally, the crucial question is whether Aurangzeb was a fair ruler or a religious bigot. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27922706 / Depending on who authors the history book, one will be portrayed as a saviour, while the other will be depicted as an opportunistic villain. Shivaji's kingdom was once characterised as a vassal territory of the Mughal Empire, and he was even said to have undertaken military campaigns on behalf of the Mughals. In his later years, his father, Shahaji, reportedly had a somewhat complex relationship with him, having formed an alliance with the neighbouring Bijapuri Sultanate against Shivaji. In the wake of numerous military clashes post-1657, Shivaji's once amicable relations with the Mughals soured. This shift coincided with Aura...

Panipat, The Great Betrayal (Hindi; 2019) Many post-colonial nations are eager to re-write their histories. Previously their colonial masters painted a story of their land as seen from their jaundiced eyes, in keeping with their narration as being the saviour and liberators. Now, after years of accepting the past history as the gospel truth, the natives have arisen from long slumbers. They want to re-write the baloney. There is an urgent need to re-look at our history books. Indians complain that their history books are only filled with a dramatic depiction of impoverished India where the liberators from the West, rose to their occasion to illuminate wisdom and a sense of purpose. Their glorious pasts are conveniently whitewashed. It seems that even the narration about India's most prominent kingdoms like Vijayanagara, Paalavi and the Pandava Dynasties are conspicuously absent from the history textbooks. Bollywood is trying to patch the gap conveniently blanked out of histo...